Editorial: Nice pay for part-time gig

This photo shows an exterior view of the New York state Capitol Monday, April 1, 2019, in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)

This photo shows an exterior view of the New York state Capitol Monday, April 1, 2019, in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)

Photo: Hans Pennink

Photo: Hans Pennink

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This photo shows an exterior view of the New York state Capitol Monday, April 1, 2019, in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)

This photo shows an exterior view of the New York state Capitol Monday, April 1, 2019, in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)

Photo: Hans Pennink

Editorial: Nice pay for part-time gig

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THE ISSUE:

A judge strikes down restrictions on outside work for state legislators.

THE STAKES:

Anti-corruption rules were supposed to be part of the deal for higher pay.

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The "help wanted" ad might look something like this: New York Legislator. No experience necessary. Generous health and retirement plan, full reimbursement for commuting and lodging. Salary: $110,000 with automatic $10,000 annual raises.

Oh, and now this: Part-time only.

That's right, after becoming the second-highest-paid lawmakers in the nation (on track to be the highest-paid next year), it turns out that state legislators can still hold outside jobs and make all the extra money they can.

Maybe.

The backstory: Last year, after nearly two decades of no raises to their $79,500-a-year salaries, legislators, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo's assent, punted the decision to a newly created commission — which in December said yes, it's time for a raise, and bumped lawmakers' salaries up to $110,000, just behind California's $110,459. It also eliminated most of the extra stipends legislators got for committee and leadership posts. Pretty much the only requirement was to pass a state budget on time.

The commission also authorized two more raises of $10,000 each, in 2020 and 2021. That's where things got complicated. Those raises were conditioned on capping outside income at 15 percent of the salary, and barring outside employment involving a legislator and an employer or client in a fiduciary relationship — a legal or ethical link that could raise conflicts of interest. A similar rule applies to Congress. Common Cause New York estimates nearly one-fourth of lawmakers would have to give up their outside employment, divest from businesses or quit their posts.

Lawsuits ensued. And last week State Supreme Court Justice Christina Ryba ruled that the commission exceeded its authority when it put limits on outside income, which Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie says the Legislature never intended when it created the commission. That would seem to allow lawmakers to keep their raises and collect the next two.

Now an internal Assembly legal memo has surfaced, suggesting that since the raises were premised on the employment restrictions, if the restrictions are invalid, so are the raises.

That's a proper analysis, ethically if not legally. One could even go a step further and infer that the commission might not have recommended even the initial $30,500 raise if it couldn't phase in limitations on outside income — restrictions, remember, that were intended to cut off an avenue of corruption that has at times infected the highest levels of the Legislature.

So three options emerge: The Legislature and governor could reconvene the commission to again consider the entire issue of raises. Or lawmakers could just do the right thing and pass a law enacting the outside income ban that the commission proposed. They could do either one of these before the session ends next week.

If they don't, then the ethical course is Option 3: Go back to square one, cut the pay to $79,500, and start over.

And for those lawmakers who find none of those options acceptable, there are always the want ads.